Earlier that night…
In the Lake Hardwood Mansion, a ball was being hosted by the Woods Family with various nobles and people from all walks of life gracing the mansion with their presence.
This ball was held to celebrate the youngest daughter of the Woods family taking first place in the NAC and to announce her engagement to the eldest son of the Davies family.
Emma Woods was in her room. The hairstylist had styled her brown waist-length hair into an elegant soft updo bun with a few strands enclosing her face. A natural red hue was gracing her face.
Emma pinched herself for the umpteenth time as she still couldn't believe that she was getting engaged to the love of her life today. She couldn't help but smile at the thought.
She had been chasing him ever since they were young. And getting engaged to her first love felt like a dream come true. She sat quietly as the makeup artist enhanced her natural features.
Today, the usually arrogant and brassy Emma was nowhere to be found. It was as if she had been replaced by someone else. Her behavior was surprising for her friends too as she could never sit still.
After the makeup was done, she got up to wear her engagement gown which she had spent hours selecting and adjusting to her liking. She wanted to look her best in front of Max.
Deep in her thoughts, Emma was startled by her best friend Jennifer's scream.
She was frightened by the sudden screech and went pale as she saw a glass of orange juice spilled onto her cream-colored gown. For a moment, she couldn't believe her eyes.
Jennifer panicked. "I'm so sorry, Emma. I don't know how my hand slipped. I'll clean it." Jennifer sounded aggrieved as she tried to get some tissues to absorb the orange juice but, in the process, ended up smearing it all over the dress.
Emma was stupefied by her presence as she had firmly asked the butler not to let anyone enter her room but now not only Jennifer had entered without permission but also ruined her dress.
Emma felt a bout of anger raising in her heart as she saw the huge orange-colored stain on the white dress. She could no longer wear it.
She wanted to admonish Jennifer for her carelessness but when she saw how sad she looked, she held back. She closed her eyes as she didn't want to lose her calm.
"I'm sorry, Emma. I didn't mean it."
"Get out," Emma gritted her teeth as she spoke. Her eyes turned red at the thought of her ruined dress. She couldn't bring herself to forgive Jennifer.
Huge tears fell out of Jennifer's eyes. Jennifer apologized profusely but Emma did not pay her any attention which caused her to cry even more miserably. Even the stylists felt that Emma was making a huge deal out of an unfortunate accident.
Emma simply clenched her jaw, not feeling the necessity to explain herself as she threw Jennifer out of the room.
Unwillingly, she wore a baby pink dress which was also beautiful but lacked in comparison to the original ball gown. Moreover, the dress didn't match the theme of the ball at all.
'Why do these things have to happen today?' Emma was annoyed as she had repeatedly instructed everyone that she wanted her day to be perfect but it was falling to pieces before the ceremony even started.
All attendees were asked to wear ball gowns but now the host wasn't wearing one, it was both embarrassing and shameful.
She had to redo her makeup to match the dress which resulted in her being late to the ball.
Her instincts were telling her that today something big was going to happen but she didn't pay much attention to it and simply attributed it to her nervousness.
Reaching downstairs, she was met with a lot of questioning gazes but she smiled at each one in return. She acted nonchalantly as she walked through the crowd.
Unknown to Emma, her best friends were preparing a surprise for her.
In a desolate corner, Jennifer had gathered Susan and Olivia, two other best friends of Emma.
"This is the plan. How do you guys find it?" Jennifer asked gleefully. She looked particularly happy at the moment, all her previous sadness nowhere to be found.
"Jennifer, you are the best. Let's give her a taste of her own medicine. I feel excited from just imagining." Susan's hushed voice resounded in the corner. Jennifer felt proud after hearing the compliment.
"Thank you, I've been wanting to teach her a lesson for a long time. Now that the opportunity was right by my door, I decided to act on it without delay."
"I love your evil mind." Susan wanted to kiss Jennifer but held back. She tried to get her emotions under control as she didn't want to be found out before they could even act on the plan.
"What about you, Olivia? You don't like it?" Jennifer asked Olivia who had remained quiet for a while.
"Jennifer, I don't think this is a good idea. After all, Emma has been good to us. She always takes care of us and it is her big day too. Won't she hold a grudge against us?" Olivia looked concerned as she said.
Both Jennifer and Susan stopped for a moment and then burst into a fit of laughter. Olivia joined them. The trio laughed until their stomach hurt.
"Oh my god, Olivia, you got me. Haha," Jennifer said in between laughing.
"I thought you were serious for a moment." Susan overcame her laughter and said seriously.
"If it were up to me, I'll never let her off so easily." Olivia cruelly said. None of them liked Emma. They believed that Emma always looked down on them.
However, they couldn't deliberately go against her as she was the granddaughter of William Woods who held a lot of power and name.
Besides being friends with Emma had its own perks as they could get away with a lot of things just because people wanted to curry favor with William Woods.
The trio entered the ball after some time and immediately looked for Emma. They had to pay attention to Emma throughout the whole night for their scheme to continue unhindered.
Olivia spotted Emma standing with other girls and went to her. Emma was smiling gently at something one of the girls had said.
'Wait until this smile is wiped off of your face.' Olivia viciously thought.
She locked hands with Emma from behind and lightly said, "I'm sorry, but I'll have to borrow Emma for a while." She excused herself and Emma from the company of the girls and took her back to where Jennifer was standing.
As soon as Jennifer saw Emma, she put on a sad smile looking wronged.
"Emma, I'm sorry for tainting your dress." Jennifer once again apologized.
"It's okay, Jennifer. Emma will not hold a grudge against you. After all, it was an accident," Susan jumped in defense of Jennifer.
"Yeah, after all, you are Emma's best friend and it's not like you did it on purpose. Emma is so understanding, she'll forgive you." Olivia's gaze turned calculative as she looked at Emma who remained quiet. Probably for the sake of not causing a scene on her engagement.
Emma Woods had been chasing Max Davies since she was a child. And she had been on cloud nine now that her Grandfather had promised to talk to the Davies family about their engagement.
Oblivious to the shadows lurking in the darkness wishing to ruin her happiness, she simply swallowed her sharp words and smiled at their words. Not agreeing nor disagreeing.
She glanced at the entrance of the hall.
'Why is he running late?' Emma thought. She didn't know why but she was getting anxious as time passed.
"Emma, we have come here just for you. Anyways, when your Prince Charming will come, you'll stick to him like gum. Pay attention to us at the moment. That's the least you can do." Susan held Emma's hand as she talked.
She didn't like Emma's behavior of disregarding them and not giving them VIP protocol.
Emma looked at Susan who was being weird today, be it her actions or words. Normally, she was the one who spoke the least to her. But decided not to point it out as it could be that she was mistaken.
"Sorry, I feel a bit nervous. What were you saying?" Emma said apologetically. No matter what, she didn't want her friends to feel left out of her engagement.
"It's okay. Don't whine Susan, you know it's Emma's big day and we don't want to "ruin" it now, Do we?" Jennifer said emphasizing ruin.
Emma looked at Jennifer, she felt that her words were eccentric. She still hadn't forgiven her and didn't want to respond to her. She felt something weird was going on with these three. But couldn't put a finger on it.
She felt an overwhelming unknown emotion come over her heart.
Before Emma could ask Jennifer what she meant, she saw her mother walking gracefully over to her.
"Emma, Mrs. Shelby is asking for you," Mrs. Woods said elegantly told Emma.
Then switched her attention to Emma's friends. Although she never really liked them, they were still her daughter's friends. For formalities sake, she asked:
"How are you liking our humble ball, young ladies?"
"It's fun, Mrs. Woods" Susan replied, her eye twitching at Mrs. Woods's "humble" word.
She had been to many balls but none of them were as Grandiose and opulent as the Woods's. Everything here screamed luxury.
"Well then, I hope you enjoy your stay here. Please excuse us," Mrs. Woods smiled and excused herself as she took Emma to Mrs. Shelby's.